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Pakistan
/ Israel: Challenges ahead!
Swaraj
Singh
Pakistan
and Israel look very different because one is an Islamic state
while the other is a Jewish state, but both have something in
common. Both these countries did not evolve historically but were
imposed by the western powers. The western imperialist powers wanted
a permanent and reliable foothold in the Indian subcontinent and in
the middle east. These countries did not come into existence as a
result of genuine national liberation struggles of the people but
were imposed by the collaboration of the elitist groups with the
imperial powers.
From
the very beginning, the creation of these countries led to a lot of
turmoil and suffering for many people. About one million innocent
Muslims, Hindus, and Sikhs were brutally murdered and many women
were raped. Millions were uprooted and became refugees in 1947 when
Pakistan was created.
The
creation of Israel also led to the killing of many Palestinians and
millions of Palestinians became refugees. Many Palestinians
continued to suffer untold sufferings in the refugee camps.
Pakistan
played a very important role in bringing down the Soviet Union.
Pakistan was used as the main base to train and arm the Taliban. The
Taliban brought down the pro-Soviet regime in Afghanistan and
inflicted a humiliating defeat on the Soviet troops in Afghanistan.
This played a very important role in the collapse of the Soviet
Union. Today, the same Taliban and Islamists have become bitter adversaries
of Pakistan's rulers.
They
have blamed Pakistan's rulers of being pro-America, pro-Israel, and
siding with them against the Muslims. These are very serious charges
and General Musharraf can not be very comfortable because he knows
what happened to Anwar Sadat (who took similar blame). The call for
the overthrow of General Musharraf is not limited to just a change
of the leadership at the top, actually it will bring very
fundamental changes in Pakistan's political structure and
hierarchy.
Pakistan
has been ruled primarily by the Punjabi-dominated army. This Punjabi
elite has abandoned their mother tongue, Punjabi, and have adopted
Urdu, while all other nationalities in Pakistan have stuck to their
mother tongues. Sindhis, Baluchs, and people living in the north
west frontier speak their mother tongues.
America
has decided that Pakistani ruling military elite is its non-NATO
ally; all sanctions on Pakistan have been lifted and all the loans
have been written off. America wants Pakistan to eradicate Islamic
fundamentalists from the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. Pakistan's
military campaign against the Muslim fundamentalists has turned out
to be a big failure.
While
the elite has become America's closest ally in the Indian
subcontinent, the majority of people in Pakistan still have an
unfavorable opinion about America. The local tribal people and
religious leaders in Pakistan have condemned this campaign. It is
becoming obvious that the Punjabi-dominated Pakistani army will no
longer be able to dominate the non-Punjabi population. There seem to
be two possible outcomes.
The
first, Pakistan can go through an Islamic revolution like Iran had.
The second, Pakistan's military elite can tilt towards India.
America will naturally prefer the second option. That is why America
wants relations between India and Pakistan to improve at this time.
In practice, that means relations between the two Punjabs (Indian
and Pakistani Punjabs) will improve.
The
best solution for the Indian subcontinent is the emergence of a
South Asian Economic Alliance on the pattern of European Union and
ASEAN. Even though conditions in the Indian subcontinent are
different than Europe and Southeast Asia, the general principles of
alliance are relevant to this region also because regional
cooperation is a global trend.
srael
continues to face growing isolation in the world. After Israel
assassinated Ahmed Yassin, the founder of Hamas, the security
council vote showed its isolation. Only America voted in favor of
Israel, eleven countries, including Russia and China, voted against
Israel. No European country voted in Israel's favor. America had to
use its veto to stop the revolution. This made America's relations
with the Islamic world from bad to worse. The European union
condemned Israel in its meeting. It is becoming increasingly clear
that Europe is bent upon taking over the leadership of the Western
world from America. It is also clear that Europe is a lot more
sympathetic to Palestinians than America is. The growing value of
the Euro as compared to the American dollar can be of little comfort
to Israel.
Israel
should learn from the American experience in Iraq and from the
Russian experience in Afghanistan. It was a debacle in Afghanistan
which led to the collapse of the Soviet Union. It is becoming
increasingly clear that Iraq has the potential of becoming another
Vietnam for America. The only difference between the Iraq and
Vietnam experiences could be that there was no Europe waiting to
take over the leadership of the western world. It is clear that
force alone can be very counterproductive.
If
the only superpower in the world can not have its way by using
force, then how can a small country, Israel, surrounded by
unfriendly nations expect to win with force alone? All the countries
of the world will have to accept the inevitable reality that the era
of a uni-polar world and unilateralist policy is over and a new
world order of a multipolar world with a multilateral approach is
just around the corner. | 
